attering the crowd
right and left. I saw at once by his uniform that he was an English
officer, and knew that I was saved. I fancy I must have been weak, for I
had had nothing to eat the day before, and had been tied up all night.
For a time I think I really fainted. When I recovered some soldiers had
cut my bonds, and one was pouring some spirits down my throat. The
English officer was giving it hot to El Chico.

"'You dog!' he said, 'it is you, and the fellows like you, who bring
discredit on your country. You run like sheep when you see a French
force under arms. You behave like inhuman monsters when, by chance, a
single man falls into your power. I have half a mind to put you against
that wall there and have you shot; or, what would meet your deserts
better, hang you to yonder tree. Don't finger that pistol, you
scoundrel, or I will blow your brains out. Be off with you, and thank
your stars I did not arrive ten minutes later; for if I had come too
late to save this poor fellow's life, I swear to you that I would have
hung you like a dog. Who is the head man of the village?'"

A man stepped forward.

"'What do you mean, sir,' said the officer sternly, 'by permitting this
villain to use your village for his atrocities? As far as I can see you
are all as bad as he is, and I have a good mind to burn the whole place
over your ears. As it is, I fine the village 800 gallons of wine, and
4000 pounds of flour, and 10 bullocks. See that it is all forthcoming in
a quarter of an hour, or I shall set my men to help themselves. Not a
word! Do as you are ordered!'

"Then he dismounted, and was coming to me, when his eye fell on El
Chico. 'Sergeant,' he said to a non-commissioned officer,' take four
men and march that fellow well outside the village, and then stand and
watch him; and see that he goes on, and if he doesn't, shoot him.' Then
he came over to me. 'It is well that I arrived in time, my lad,' he said
in French.' How did you get into this scrape?'

"'It was wine did it, sir. I drank too much at our bivouac in a village
down the plain, and did not hear the bugles in the morning, and got left
behind. When I awoke they had tied me up, and they kept me lying in the
sun all day, not giving me as much as a drop of water. At sunset they
marched me up here and tied me to that post, and El Chico told me that I
should be roasted in the morning; and so it certainly would have been if
you had not come up.

"I learned that he